The owners of this Marysville block have always loved weekending here and enjoying the bush walking opportunities this township provides. However, in the 2009 Black Saturday fires their house and garden were razed. It is a particularly steep block that is a challenge for both house construction and garden design. The flip side is an amazing view that includes blue hills for miles.
The client brief was to recreate the original garden that was a forest of azaleas, rhododendrons and tree ferns. They also wanted to lose sight of all the lower rooflines and see only the far view.
During the construction of the new house, many terraces has been dug in. Stabilising these cuts was the first consideration and how to allow these levels to be used to their full potential. The narrow upper terrace is now home to cascading plants that hide the retaining wall and allow the block to appear to disappear in to its natural bushland surrounds. The central terrace is now an outdoor dining and BBQ area and then below, down the mudstone stairway, is a maze of shrubbery that allows the client to “run away with her book and hide”.
